Chernobyl to get solar farm as part of plan to rehabilitate disaster zone

A €100m project to install a solar power plant in Chernobyl is due to go ahead next month.

According to Bloomberg, the 1MW plant will be located 100m from the former nuclear reactor and was devised by Ukrainian engineer Rodina Energy Group and German solar power consultant Enerparc.

Evgeny Variagin, the chief executive of Rodina Energy, said: “Bit by bit we want to optimise the Chernobyl zone. It shouldn’t be a black hole in the middle of Ukraine.”

In July last year, Ukraine’s government announced a plan to utilise the space around Chernobyl by offering cheap land and energy tariffs in the area; Rodina and Enerparc are expected to earn €0.15 per kWh on power generated in the region until 2030.

The project may be the first of many similar solar developments in the 1,600 sq km uninhabitable area around Chernobyl, as Rodina says it is planning solar farms near Chernobyl and are looking for investors.

Rodina has a 150MW install base of solar power and has previously installed solar power plants on five sites in Ukraine.

Image: An area near Chernobyl, Ukraine (Wikimedia Commons/Gyurika)

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